If you’re going through a divorce or a breakup and you have children, you can expect to deal with child custody and visitation issues. You’re also going to need to work with the court to determine whether you need to pay child support. Children have a fundamental right to receive financial (and emotional) support from both parents. When a relationship ends, parents often go from two income streams to one, and when the court grants one parent primary custodial responsibility of the children, the judge will need to make sure the caretaker has the financial ability to meet the children’s needs.
What Is Income?
The court will evaluate child support based on each parents’ income, but many parties are unsure what the court considers to be “income” for purposes of child support. Your salary and wages, bonuses, business income and incentives, inheritances, and trust funds are sources of income, and the court will use these to determine your support obligation.
If you’re not working because you're retired, disabled, or looking for work, the court may include your federal benefits such as Social Security Retirement Insurance, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or workers’ compensation benefits in the formula to determine the amount you will pay.
Workers’ Compensation Benefits as Income
If you’ve ever watched daytime television, you’ve probably seen advertisements for attorneys who want to guarantee you your benefits to workers’ compensation if you're injured on the job. Most times, you won’t need an attorney to take advantage of your workers’ compensation benefits, unless there’s a dispute about the significance of your injury. Companies pay into workers’ compensation bank so that on the off chance that an employee gets injured while working the company can continue to provide payment to that employee while they recover.
Workers’ compensation benefits are meant to replace your lost income while you heal from your injury, so even if that’s your only income, the court will use it for purposes of determining your child support obligation.
Social Security Benefits and Child Support
If you’ve worked throughout your life, you’ve paid into the Social Security system. There are a few types of benefits, and the difference between them is critical in determining whether the court will use it for child support calculations.
Social Security Retirement Insurance
If you have ever looked at the taxes you pay every time you get a paycheck, you’ve probably seen the deduction for Social Security retirement benefits. Anyone that meets the requirements for this benefit can receive a monthly payment once you’ve reached retirement age. This money is meant to provide you with some income after you’ve put in your time in the workforce. Because this benefit is replacing your regular employment income, the court will consider it your income when creating a child support order.
Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits
Social Security disability insurance (SSDI) is a federal benefit that provides monthly payments to a person who is unable to work due to a permanent disability. Like Social Security retirement benefits, you’re paying for this every time you pay taxes. However, the government will only provide payment to you if you go through a stringent application process to prove that you’re unable to work any job and that you meet the work requirement history to qualify. The Social Security Administration typically denies the initial application and most applicants must hire an attorney to appeal the decision. If the administration approves your application for SSDI, the court will also provide a monthly amount for your children, called a dependent benefit.
SSDI provides a monthly cash benefit to help a disabled individual make ends meet. SSDI is meant to replace your income because you can’t work, so the court will consider your monthly benefit when it calculates child support. It’s important to understand that in most cases, SSDI provides less than the parent’s regular pay, so the amount of child support may decrease if this is the only source of income.
The court will also investigate as to whether the disability is permanent or temporary. If temporary, the court will likely set a hearing for a future date to revisit the child support amount once the parent returns to work.
Social Security Insurance
Social Security Insurance (SSI) is a federal benefit that isn’t based on what you’ve paid in taxes or your work history. The government created SSI to help low-income or disabled individuals who have little or no assets. Unlike the other forms of federal benefits, if SSI is your only form of income, the court will not count it as income. There’s no dependent benefit, meaning if you’re receiving SSI, your child will not receive a payment.
Child Support Modifications are Not Automatic
If you have an existing court order for child support, and you're injured on the job, or you qualify for SSI, SSDI or Social Security retirement benefits, it's critical that you ask the court to modify your existing order to reflect your new income. You’ll need to demonstrate that there’s been a change in circumstances since the original order, but this typically isn’t an issue when you’re receiving these benefits. The government doesn’t automatically inform the court that you’ve had a reduction in income, so if you don’t ask the court to review your order, the court will continue to charge you for the amount in the original order.
If you're already receiving any of the aforementioned federal benefits when the court creates an initial child support order, it’s essential that you comply with the court’s request for documentation to prove your income. Otherwise, the court may impute your income, meaning calculate support using a higher income that the court believes you can maintain.
If you fail to ask for a modification, or if the court denies your request and you can’t pay, you should understand that the court can garnish your retirement, workers’ compensation, and disability benefits to recoup the costs.